Word.ws English Dictionary

had the last laugh

had the last laugh is the simple past and past participle of have the last laugh.

Meaning of have the last laugh

Verb

have the last laugh (third-person singular simple present has the last laugh, present participle having the last laugh, simple past and past participle had the last laugh)

  1. (idiomatic) To be vindicated; to triumph despite predicted failure; to find success after defeat or setback.
    • The author had the last laugh over the publishers who had rejected her now best-selling book.

Questions about had the last laugh

What is had the last laugh the simple past and past participle of?
Had the last laugh is the simple past and past participle of have the last laugh.

Words near had the last laugh in the dictionary

  1. had the drop on
  2. had the first idea
  3. had the floor
  4. had the heart
  5. had the hots for
  6. had the last laugh
  7. had the laugh on one's side
  8. had the law of
  9. had the painters in
  10. had the pas of someone
  11. had the pleasure

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: had the last laugh (page history and authors); have the last laugh (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “had the last laugh.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/had_the_last_laugh. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.